Nine Steps to Making a Jewel Setting
By Mike Miller
For the IHC 185 MB

Having had to replace jewels in watches, I’ve found it necessary to learn to make jewel settings. Here’s the method that I have used. It is an adaptation from Fried’s technique. I would be happy to here from others their critique and suggestions for making the process easier.

Tools used:
Lathe with T-rest
Jewel Chucks
Standard Diamond Profile Graver
Sharp Pointed Graver
Burnishing graver or burnishing tool
Pivot drill
Pin Vise
Micrometer

Materials needed:
Unset Jewels
Brass rod stock
Rodico
Diamatine
Wood Block






Methods:
Select appropriate size brass rod and chuck into lathe. Round the stock true. Square the end of stock and find the center. Create true center for drill to enter. Select drill size that is approximately 3/4 the diameter of jewel used. Insert Pivot Drill Bit into Pin Vise and drill while stock turns in lathe.

1. Drill hole into brass stock to a depth that leaves plenty of length for finished product.
A. Diameter should be 3/4 diameter of selected jewel.

2. Used the Sharp Pointed Graver to create seat for jewel. If jewel used has a rounded profile, match it
B. Diameter should equal diameter of jewel. If you miscalculate size, resquare end of stock and start over.
C. The depth of jewel should determine depth of cut. In jewels with an endstone that covers them allow .02mm clearance between hole and cap jewel. It is better to set it a little to deep than to shallow. You can always shorten the stock at this point if you need to. Test fit the jewel.

3. Here’s where you start the process to burnish the jewel in. Use clock oil on the setting. This will hold the jewel in place. Create the bur with the jewel in position. Use the sharp graver and cut to create a bur that you can burnish over the jewel. Plunge the graver in so that the cutting edge of the graver closest to the jewel is parallel with the body of the lathe.

4. With the setting still in the lathe, burnish over the grove you created. A simple tool can be made as Fried suggests, or any of the multitudes of available burnishing gadgets can also be used. Once burnishing is complete, carefully check that jewel is secure in setting and that the center is true. If all is not correct, start over.

5. Now comes careful replication of measurements from the original jewel setting (if available) or from the plate. I usually use a micrometer for getting the needed measurements. My micrometer is more accurate than my calipers for testing diameters. We will begin the process of duplicating the stepped setting.
D. Determine the overall diameter that the setting will require and turn the rod to this measurement. Keep in the lathe and test the plate against the measurement.
E. Determine the thickness of the largest part of the setting. Error on the plus side here, because we can remove stock later to fine-tune the setting to adjust the endshake. Use a scribe or fine point to mark the boundary of this cut.
F. Turn the rod down (from your mark) to the inside of the step (smallest diameter) of the setting. Keep all shoulders perfectly square. Make the length suitable for the finished setting, plus extra for room to part the setting from the rod.

6. Here’s where we part the setting from the rod.
G. Leave extra, we’ll clean it up in the next step.

7. Here’s where the Jewel Chucks earn their keep. These little gizmos are worth their weight in gold. I have the type that you insert into a standard #50. We will now cut the smallest step of the setting to length and bevel the inside angle. To get a perfect polish to the setting bevel, sharpen your gravers through a series of Arkansas stones, ending with the white (hardest), then polish the gravers on a piece of wood charged with diamantine powder. You should be able to see your reflection in the facet of the graver.
H. Using the Sharp Pointed graver again, cut the bevel of the setting, being very careful not to hit the jewel in the process. You don’t want the bevel to meet the jewel, there should be a lip left in the cut to keep some meat in the setting to support the jewel. Again this measurement will be larger that the finished measurement, We’re about to clean it up.

8. If you have done things correctly up to this point, you will have enough length left in the small diameter of the setting to cambfer the edge.
I. Do so and trim this step of the setting to its proper length.

9. Test the setting in the plate, insert the wheel and pivot along with the opposite plate. Measure the endshake. If you have erred on the conservative side in the previous steps, you should have ample endshake. If there is too much, reduce the depth by rechucking in the jewel chuck.
J. Adjust for endshake with very light cuts. Retest until all is proper.


So there you have it. Not quite a twelve step process, but you can save that for when it doesn’t work out and you have to resort to some magical elixir to help you keep your sanity.

Literature Cited:

Fried, H. B., Bench Practices for Watch and Clockmakers, Second Edition, Arlington Book Company, Virginia, (1954, 1974, 1993) ISBN 0-9656219-1-X (pp. 148-153).

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Mike Miller
NAWCC Member# 154831
NAWCC-IHC Charter Member# 27

That's essentially the way I do it, except I use a slide rest, and I cut and polish the outside of the setting first and make sure it turns out well before I set the jewel into the bottom. By doing it that way, it's possible to avoid using jewel chucks, which I find are not as accurate as standard collets.

Here's a link to an image of a movement that I happen to have already available online, which has had a jewel setting replaced:

http://members.aol.com/nevarietur/EverittMvmt.JPG

Some genius had mutilated one of the originals by drilling it out and stuffing a HUGE bright-red friction jewel into it! Obviously, the new jewel setting is a little "brighter" than the others (although it's less obvious in reality than in the image), but I'd imagine it will eventually oxidixe like the rest, especially after another hundred years or so!

Steve Maddox
President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas

Steve,

Thanks for the comment, and Nice movement picture. Looks like a Peoria Movement (or is it Fredonia). How are those settings held in?

I should have prefaced this by saying that the method is best used for jewels topped by endstones, since the bevel is towards the interior of the movement. I also didn't explain countersinking for screws in noncapped settings.

Mike Miller
NAWCC Member# 154831
NAWCC-IHC Charter Member# 27

Mike,

The watch in the images above is a Peoria, as can be discerned by the serial number, as well as by the teeth on the regulator disk (which really aren't visible in the image above). Examples made by Fredonia have teeth all the way around the perimeter of the regulator disk, while Peoria models (except for a few of the earliest ones) have teeth only about half way around.

As for the jewel settings, they're exactly like those in your sketches above. They're shouldered settings with burnished-in jewels, which are friction fitted into the plate from the bottom side.

By the way, it's nice to see that at least a few people are still interested in learning the old ways, and trying to restore watches appropriately!

SM

Steve Maddox
President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas